(see all the little duckies in a row) Tipped off by Mike of GoldIron:
Yepper, the price of gas combined with midlife crises or rising college tuitions and lack of money combined with the debut of the “Sons of Anarchy” have you yearning to experience the Freedom of the wind in your hair. Well theres this funny little thing about experiencing the freedom of anything. You have to be free to experience it to begin with.
And if you are a new rider who has not yet “purchased” a motorcycle endorsement (I say purchase because in reality that is all going to motorcycle training school is, paying an unfair tax, “purchasing” your right to ride) you may find it tough to get one in Florida.
From the Herald Tribune in Florida (edited for space)
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080905/ARTICLE/809050339/2055/NEWS&title=Safety_law_and_full_classes_make_new_motorcyclists_wait
The spontaneity of buying a first motorcycle and riding off toward a distant horizon is gone, now that state law requires new riders to take safety classes that are hard to come by. The law, along with the soaring number of people buying motorcycles and scooters for fuel-efficient travel, has jammed area safety schools and those across the state.
Prospective bikers are paying for classes they will not be able to attend for two to three months, said Cindy Hunter, director of continuing and community education at Manatee Community College. The college offers the safety classes at its Venice and Bradenton campuses.
The two-month-old law requires new motorcyclists to pass a basic rider course that includes five hours of classroom instruction on safety and 10 hours of riding practice on a certified training range.
A side effect has been a huge backlog at schools offering the safety classes, as more people turn to motorcycles for transportation.
The state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has paid to train coaches, helping to boost the number of training sites from 50 to 174, said agency spokeswoman Ann Nucatola.
Now this one I wonder about? Is the state paying for the training of coaches that will be working at private for profit companies???
10,000 people in Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee counties who registered a motorcycle or scooter in the past five years.
Motorcycle and moped registrations have increased 46.7 percent in the three counties since fiscal 2003.
Meanwhile, truck registrations have dropped 4.5 percent and passenger car registrations increased 3 percent.
So now, can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture? Lets try:
Requiring Motorcyclist to pay for a training course and not “other vehicle” drivers is discriminatory if not stupid.
Requiring people to pay for a course that is not available opens the door to graft and corruption and people taking advantage of other people. But then we know that probably isn't true. Nah, that stuff never happens, especially when government oversight is involved. Oh, how much was that Alaskan “bridge to nowhere” ???
Requiring people to pay take a course that has not been proven and could in fact increase your risk of being in an crash, well thats just plain stupid.
But then you have the people that who go oh no that can't be true and buy the snake oil and we are left to wonder, which was worse, the cure or the disease?
NOTE: You would think that M$F or the schools that use it's curriculum would challenge those of us who question the efficacy of their programs would you not? To date we are not aware of any person questioning the efficacy of M$F curriculum being challenged. But then why would M$F worry since the “gov'ment” guarantee's their profit?Add to Technorati Favorites
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